Bibliography: (pages 314-330) and index.

Part I: Trauma, bonding and a multigenerational perspective -- Psychological disorders -- The unexplained origins of psychological disorders -- Inadequate theories and treatments -- Multigenerational systemic psychotraumatology -- Basic assumptions for multigenerational systemic psychotraumatology (MSP) -- Bonding and trauma: three principles -- Psychological and emotional bonding -- Bonding relationships as the basis of human existence -- Types of bonded relationships -- Psychological health and entanglements of the soul -- Psychological trauma -- Introduction -- A definition of trauma -- Types of trauma -- Experiencing and treating trauma -- The post-trauma consequences -- The transmission of trauma experiences over generations -- Four types of trauma and their core emotional conflicts -- Existential trauma -- Introduction to existential trauma -- Effects on the following generation -- Particular issues of the legacy of existential trauma -- Loss trauma -- Introduction to loss trauma -- Different types of loss trauma -- Loss trauma and its effect on subsequent generations -- Bonding trauma -- Introduction -- Development of bonding trauma -- Particular issues to do with bonding trauma -- Consequences of bonding trauma -- The effects of bonding trauma on subsequent generations -- Bonding system trauma -- Introduction: Keeping or revealing family secrets -- Trauma of the whole bonding system -- The effects of bonding system trauma on subsequent generations -- Multiple and sequential traumas -- Part II: The methodology of systemic constellations -- Introduction to systemic constellations -- The constellations process -- Bert Hellinger and the development of family constellations -- My own journey as a constellations facilitator -- Method, context, theory and facilitator -- A small research study on the effectiveness of constellations -- Constellations in the therapy of bonding disorders and trauma -- Therapy of bonding disorders -- Trauma therapy -- Future considerations.

Franz Ruppert's book explores the different types of trauma experience, along with the bonding theories of John Bowlby and attachment work of Mary Ainsworth and others, forming a multigenerational picture of the dynamics of trauma. Experiences of trauma can be so painful as to cause a split in the personality. It is impossible for a mother or father to avoid passing something of their own traumatic experiences on to their children through the process of bonding. These are the deeper feelings, perceptions, thoughts and embodied ways of being which form the residue of the trauma. Informed by his clinical experience Franz Ruppert introduces his insights into the origins of psychological distress. He has developed a unique way of working sensitively with Constellations to reveal and resolve the hidden dynamics of past trauma.